Trump: Fire and fury threat against N. Korea wasn’t tough enough

Washington, Aug 10 (EFE).- President Donald Trump on Thursday said that perhaps his threat to visit “fire and fury” upon North Korea for its provocations “wasn’t tough enough,” despite sparking worldwide fears of a potential nuclear conflict.

Trump reaffirmed his threats against the regime of Kim Jong-un in remarks to reporters before a security meeting with Vice President Mike Pence, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Cabinet chief John Kelly.

Members of a civic group shout slogans as they display banners reading ‘Stop Millitary Action and Unconditional Talks’ during a rally against recent rising tensions between the USA and North Korea, near the US embassy in Seoul, South Korea, 10 August 2017. According to reports quoting North Korean state media, North Korea’s Strategic Force said that the North Korean military is considering a plan to fire four intermediate-range ballistic missiles around the island of Guam, adding it will finalize the plan by mid-August and report it to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and await his order. Hwasong-12 missiles were said will cross the sky above the Shimane, Hiroshima and Koichi prefectures of Japan and fly 3,356.7km for about 18 minutes before landing 30 to 40km away from Guam, the North added. EFE

On Tuesday, Trump had said that if North Korea continued its provocations it would face “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” a comment that prompted Pyongyang to threaten to attack the island of Guam, a US territory where Washington maintains an important naval base.

Trump maintained his hardline stance on Thursday, saying that if North Korea launched an attack, “Things will happen to them that they never thought possible.”

Nevertheless, the president left the door open to diplomacy, but he also said that for 25 years attempts at dialogue with Pyongyang’s communist regime had failed and “It’s about time that somebody stuck up for the people of this country.”

With Pence at his side, before going into the meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, where he is on an extended vacation, Trump said that he is supported “100 percent by our military” and by other world leaders.

Trump expressed thanks to China and Russia, traditional allies of Pyongyang, for voting last weekend in favor of new sanctions in the UN Security Council in response to the two most recent North Korean ICBM tests in July.

The president said he did not want to comment upon the possibility that Washington could stage a preemptive strike on North Korea, which on Thursday said it was finalizing plans to launch two medium-range missiles into the exclusive economic zone off the coast of Guam.